With heightened awareness of card fraud in a card not present environment, plus the holiday shopping season looming, Amazon is offering the option for consumers to use two-factor authentication when logging in. As reported in Wired:
Amazon.com has given users the option to enable two-step authentication on their accounts. Two-factor verification isn’t mandatory, but in general, it’s a good idea to turn it on whenever you’re using something that stores your personal info and credit-card number. Amazon decidedly qualifies on both counts.
Two-factor authentication simply means that you need something in addition to your login and password to access your account. In this case, Amazon sends you a text message with a string of numbers to input at the login screen, or you can use a random code generated by an authentication app, like Authy or Google Authenticator.
Entering a code every time you log in is not the most convenient activity, but the inconvenience of dealing with stolen card credentials is much worse. As fraud begins to migrate more to the card not present environment, we will see more opportunities for multi-factor authentication at the channel level and by payment type as well.
Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group
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